Early Career Achievers announced

Edith Cowan University (ECU) is joining with a group of Western Australian professional associations and employers to recognise professionals who excel in the workforce in the first five years after graduation.

University vice-chancellor, Professor Millicent Poole, said the new awards program would be a way of promoting the value of graduates in many fields of professional endeavour in modern Australia.

"Graduates bring fresh knowledge, trained minds, energy and a broad set of skills to their chosen occupations," she said. One of ECU's leading research centres, the Institute for the Service Professions, has identified seven fields of employment which will be included in the inaugural awards program for early career achievers.

ALIA West is proud to announce the three finalists in the Information Services category of the inaugural Early Career Awards. These awards are being run jointly by Edith Cowan University (ECU), the Australian Library and Information Association, the Australian Society of Archivists and the Records Management Association of Australasia. The three finalists are:

Pauline Hodson

Pauline Hodson of Spearwood, is co-ordinator of Learning Resource Services at Challenger TAFE in Beaconsfield.

Pauline arrived in Western Australia in 1987 determined to begin a new professional career.

She enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Science (Library and Information Studies) at Curtin University and was soon representing the student association at the Australian Library and Information Association WA branch meetings.

Since graduation, Pauline has belonged to a number of ALIA committees and is currently a facilitator of the graduate mentoring committee which helps new library graduates make the transition from university to professional life. She is passionate about information literacy and in her role at TAFE aims to provide the highest level of service in a professional and ethical manner.

Gwen Buch

Gwen Buch, of Rossmoyne, is a project manager with the Department of Conservation and Land Management. Gwen studied part-time at Curtin University while raising two small children.

She was a consistently high achiever, earning a place on the Vice-Chancellor's list (the top one per cent of undergraduate students) seven times and graduating with the John Dean Award for academic excellence.

Gwen began working for CALM in 2002 and has worked on several major projects based on establishing compliance with the State Records Act 200, the most innovative of which has been an online recordkeeping awareness training package.

Known as RAT, this project won CALM the Records and Information Management Liaison Group Excellence in Records Management Award in 2003. It is also being implemented at five other government agencies.

Maria Carvalho

Maria was born in Portugal and migrated to Africa at the age of three. She migrated to Australia in 1977 after having lived in Mozambique and Rhodesia.

Maria began her career in microfilming and over the next seventeen years worked in the micrographics industry in both the public and private sectors.

In 1990, she juggled full time employment to undertake a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Murdoch University.

Maria currently works as a member of the Reference Team at the State Records Office where she liaises with genealogists, historians and professional researchers to assist clients with their daily information requests.

She has become proficient at locating misplaced records as well as discovering facts from obscure information. When the WA Museum requested information about a tin band it had in its possession, Maria's commitment to research led her to the discovery of a story that connected the tin band, found in South Beach, to thirteen French sailors stranded off the coast of Madagascar.

Maria regularly organises tours of the State Library for visiting groups, tailored to their specific requirements, to promote awareness of the importance of archives and their value and place in today's society and has also been responsible for researching and selecting display material for the State Records Office Search Room.

Join us at the GALA Night at Parmelia Hilton

The winner of the Information Services Award will be announced at a Gala Night on Wednesday 21 July 2004 to be hosted by Edith Cowan University at the Parmelia Hilton. Tickets are on sale and can be applied for online at http://www.ecu.edu.au/pr/EarlyCareerAwards/ (click on Gala Night) or by contacting 08 6304 5389.

The Early Career Awards, recognising professional excellence, are proudly sponsored by the Institute for the Service Professions, Hollywood Private Hospital and 96fm.

Jeanette Hill
ALIA West

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